Abstract #0662

Development and Positive Contrast Imaging of an MR-Visible Mesh-Implant for Repair of Abdominal Hernia

Nils A. Kraemer¹, Jens Otto², Michael Hodenius³, Ioana Slabu³, Martin Baumann³, Uwe Klinge^2,3, Andreas Muellen⁴, Boris Obolenski⁴, Rolf W. Guenther¹, Gabriele A. Krombach¹

¹Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital Aachen, Aachen, Germany; ²Department of Surgery, University Hospital Aachen, Germany; ³Helmholtz Institute for Applied Medical Engineering, University of Technology Aachen, Germany; ⁴FEG Textiltechnik Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, Aachen, Germany

Polymer meshes are frequently implanted for surgical treatment of hernia. As, these meshes cannot be depicted with conventional radiological methods, aim of this study was to develop an MR-visible mesh implant. After incorporating superparamagnetic nanoparticles of ferrofluids into the mesh-filaments, susceptibility artefacts enabled delineation of the mesh. As intra-abdominal air and scar tissue present with hypointense signal intensities too, positive contrast of these susceptibilities was achieved by using inversion-recovery with ON-resonant water suppression (IRON) sequences. In phantoms and animal corps, the ferrous mesh was clearly delineated using IRON-imaging. Consequently, this method can help to reveal frequent post-surgery mesh related problems.